The success of Yelp can be attributed to their against-the-grain philosophy. They did it their way, without following the lead of the popular review sites that came before them. Last March, it had 3.3 million users, according to research firm Comscore, up 87% from a year ago.

The New York Times recently ran a piece on Yelp, stating how the site has evolved and how they have put a premium on “the reviewing experience” above all.

In the article, Yelp’s co-founder and chief executive, Jeremy Stoppelman described Yelp as “a blog with a little bit of structure,” adding that the site mimics the structure of a social network, so that active members can see information about and follow the work of other reviewers who interest them. Yelp has also started holding social events for its frequent reviewers.

Stoppelman believes that site has also popular because Yelp has been slow to add advertising. There are no only a few banner ads. “Instead, Yelp uses some relatively subtle advertising formats: Businesses can pay to have their companies listed first on search pages (identified as a sponsored listing). And they can pay to add photos and a little other information to the page about their business. But revenue from these sources isn’t enough to make Yelp profitable.”

Responding to criticism from business owners that some user reviews are unfair, Yelp also recently introduced a way for the business owner to send a message back to a reviewer, the article stated. If the reviewer doesn’t choose to write back, the business owner can’t send a second message.

Ultimately, Stoppelman says, the site deliberately bends its rules to support the reviewers. “We put the community first, the consumer second and businesses third,” he told the New York Times.